This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention recited in the claims. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Industrial vehicles, such as roof bolters and other mining vehicles, are often operated in extreme and diverse conditions and thus may be required to travel over a variety of surfaces in order to perform various functions of the vehicle. For instance, the same vehicle may be required to travel over gravel, mud, pavement and/or other various surfaces to travel between job sites or during the course of a job or task. However, some vehicles, or some vehicle drives (e.g., crawler drive, wheel drive, etc.), may not be best suited for a particular surface, resulting in sub-optimal performance when operating over that surface. As a result, the vehicle drive may need to be changed out or replaced with a drive better suited to the surface, or the particular job or task, in order for the vehicle to operate most efficiently. Often, the vehicle chassis is configured to receive a specific vehicle drive, such that the chassis must also be changed out or replaced in order to change out the vehicle drive, which can result in significant downtime for the vehicle.
Some vehicles may include a modular chassis having a common frame for supporting different types of vehicles. An example of such a vehicle and modular chassis can be found in PCT Patent Application No. PCT/FR2012/050426, published Sep. 7, 2012, for “Flat Modular Chassis, and Vehicle Provided with such a Chassis,” which discloses a vehicle having a common frame and “other sets of body adaptable to said frame and to perform alternately on the same frame by selecting the appropriate set.” However, the disclosed modular chassis is configured to receive a wheel drive, such that the modular chassis must be changed out or replaced in order to install another type of drive more suitable for a particular terrain, resulting in significant downtime for the vehicle.